Oral Tradition and Biblical Studies Began with His Dissertation, Later Published As Oral Formulaic Language in the Biblical Psalms (1967)
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About the Authors Roderick Beaton (King’s College London) has carried on fi eldwork on Greek oral poetry in many parts of Greece and Cyprus and is the author of Folk Poetry of Modern Greece (1980). He has researched and published extensively on Greek literature dating from the twelfth century to the present and on modern Greek folk music. His current research project is a book entitled The Medieval Greek Romance. Robert Culley’s interest in oral tradition and Biblical studies began with his dissertation, later published as Oral Formulaic Language in the Biblical Psalms (1967). In addition to the general problem of the applicability of this approach to the Bible, he has touched on similar areas in Studies in the Structure of Hebrew Narrative (1976) and plans further commentary in a Proppian study of narrative action now underway. He is presently Professor of Religious Studies at McGill University. In 1963 Eric Havelock’s landmark book Preface to Plato revolutionized the way we read both Homer and other ancient Greek literature by making the case for the “oral encyclopedia” of cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs that was “published” in oral performance. A collection of his seminal writings, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (1982), has since appeared, as has a fascinating study of the Presocratics (1983). He is Sterling Professor of Classics (Emeritus) at Yale University. Burton Raffel (University of Denver), author of some forty books on an enormous variety of literary subjects, has given us classic translations of some of our most cherished works, such as Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and many more. He is a practicing poet, literary critic, fi ction writer, and editor, and spent some years as a lawyer on Wall Street. Among his present projects are a verse translation of Chrétien’s Yvain and Readings and Documents in the History of Prosody. Frederick Turner (University of Texas, Dallas), former editor of the Kenyon Review, is at home in anthropology and modern science as well as literary studies. He also is a well- published poet, whose book-length epic poem The New World appeared in 1985. His essays range from an examination of refl exivity in Thoreau to a study of space and time in Chinese verse, and on to the collection entitled Natural Classicism (1985). 152 Meetings and Professional Notes Some of the meetings summarized below will receive fuller treatment in subsequent issues of Oral Tradition. Readers are encouraged to write to the editor about notices and reports of conferences they attend. July 22-25, 1985 ORAL TRADITION AND LITERACY: CHANGING VISIONS OF THE WORLD, University of Natal, South Africa Albert B. Lord (Harvard University), “Words Heard and Words Seen” R. Whitaker (University of Natal), “Oral and Literary Elements in Homer’s Epics” W. J. Henderson (Rand Afrikaans University), “Oral Elements in Solon’s Poetry” T. J. Gasinski (University of South Africa), “Oral Tradition in Early Russian Literature” L. Peeters (University of Pretoria), “Syntax and Rhythm in the Song of Roland: Evidence of a Changing Vision of the World?” P. Buchholz (University of South Africa), “The Devil’s Deceptions: Pagan Scandinavian ‘Witchdoctors’ and Their God in Medieval Christian Perspective” A. E. Stewart Smith (University of Cape Town), “Non-aristocratic Poetry: The World Beyond Beowulf” M. P. Bezuidenhout (University of Port Elizabeth), “Oral Tradition in Medieval Church Songs, with Special Reference to Manuscript Gray 64 in the South African Library” B. S. Lee (University of Cape Town), “Margery Kempe: An Articulate Illiterate” J. Neethling (Rand Afrikaans University), “From ‘Griot’ to Folk-tale: The Tales of Amadou Koumba by Birago Diop” A. Wynchank (University of Cape Town), “From the Spoken Word to the Book—A Study of the Oral Tradition in A. Kourouma’s Novel, The Suns of Independence” B. J. Soko (University of Malawi), “Translating Oral Literature into European Languages” E. R. Jenkins (Vista University), “Marguerite Poland and the Tradition of Anthropomorphism in Animal Stories” D. M. Moore (University of Fort Hare), “Oral Testimony and a Community in Transition” C. de Wet (Rhodes University), “Perceptions of Village History (1880-1950)” R. Thornton (University of Cape Town), “Bleek’s Recording of the ‘Hottentot’ and Later Bushman Literature” 153 D. Dargie (Lumko Missiological Institute), “Problems of Music Literacy: Gains and Losses” G. J. M. Hutchings (University of Transkei), “Home-made Furniture: The Oral Tradition in English and Academic Attitudes” F. Moto (University of Malawi), “From Oral Tradition to the Written Word: The Malawian Experience” J. Opland (University of South Africa), “The Transition from Oral to Written in Xhosa Literature” A. T. Cope (University of Natal), “Literacy and the Oral Tradition” R.. Belcher (University of Natal), “From Literature to Oral Tradition and Back: The Griqua Case-History” Elizabeth Gunner (School of Oriental and African Studies, London), “‘The praises I have spoken for you are written in our great book at Ekuphakameni’: The Word, the Book, and the Zulu Church of Nazareth” J. Hodgson (University of Cape Town), “Fluid Assets and Fixed Investments: 160 Years of the Ntsikana Tradition” V. Erlmann (University of Natal), “Colonial Conquest and Popular Response in Northern Cameroun, 1896-1907. How Literature Becomes Oral Literature” P. McAllister (Rhodes University), “Conservatism as Ideology of Resistance among Xhosa- Speakers: The Implication for Oral Tradition and Literacy” K. Tomaselli (University of Natal), “From Orality to Visuality” Bruce Merry (University of the Witwatersrand), “Graffi ti Wall Markings as an Alternative to Literacy and the Book” C. S. de Beer (University of Zululand), “Nature, Culture, Writing” This conference also included a performance of Nguni oral poetry by the Xhosa imbongi David Manisi and an explanation of the performance by Drs. Cope, Lord, Opland, and Gunner. July 29-August 1, 1985 QUESTIONS OF ORALITY AND LITERACY: A TRIBUTE TO WALTER J. ONG, S. J., Rockhurst College, Kansas City, MO Thomas J. Farrell, S. J., “Father Ong and the Paschal Sense of Life” Walter J. Ong, S. J. (St. Louis University), “Opening Remarks about Orality and Literacy” Eric A. Havelock (Yale University, Emeritus), “The Discovery of Orality” Bruce A. Rosenberg (Brown University), “The Oral Tradition” James M. Curtis (University of Missouri/Columbia), “Coming of Age in the Global Village” Paolo Valesio (Yale University), “Listening: A Central Category for Renewal of Rhetorical Study” William J. Kennedy (Cornell University), “‘Voice’ and ‘Address’ in Literary Theory” Randolph F. Lumpp (Regis College), “Catholicity, Literacy, and Commerce: Change and Invention” 154 H. G. Haile (University of Illinois/Urbana), “From Humanism to Humanity: The Early Modern in Germany” John Miles Foley (University of Missouri/Columbia), “Preliterate Education: Oral Epic Paideia” John G. Rechtien, S. M. (St. Mary’s University), “The Ramist Style of John Udall: Audience, Logic, and Social Formation” Albert B. Lord (Harvard University), “Characteristics of Orality” Robert Kellogg (University of Virginia), “The Harmony of Time in Paradise Lost” Thomas J. Farrell, S. J., “Early Christian Creeds and Arianism in the Light of Orality- Literacy Studies” Frans Jozef Van Beeck (Loyola University of Chicago), “Dogma and Rahner’s Treatment of Dogma in the Light of Orality-Literacy Studies” Elias L. Rivers (SUNY at Stony Brook), “Two Functions of Social Discourse” Thomas J. Steele, S. J. (Regis College), “Orality and Literacy in Matter and Form: Ben Franklin’s Way to Wealth” Harold M. Stahmer (University of Florida), “Speech Is the Body of the Spirit: The Oral Hermeneutic in the Writings of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy” Deborah Tannen (Georgetown University), “Literate Genres and Their Relationship to Oral Language” Werner H. Kelber (Rice University), “The Authority of the Word in St. John’s Gospel” Dennis P. Seniff (Michigan State University), “Orality, Literacy, and the Rise of Castilian Narrative: 1200-1500” Ruth El Saffar (University of Illinois/Chicago), “Stylistic and Structural Implications of the Presence of the Feminine in Cervantes” Walter J. Ong, S. J., “Orality-Literacy Studies and the Unity of the Human Race” Many of the papers from the Ong Symposium will appear in a special Festschrift issue of Oral Tradition in January 1987 (volume 2, no. 1). September 8-6, 1985 INTERNATIONAL FOLK EPIC CONFERENCE: A COMMEMORATION OF KALEVALA 1835-1985, University College, Dublin, Ireland This conference also marked the fi ftieth anniversary of the founding of the Irish Folklore Commission. Felix J. Oinas (Indiana University), “Elements of Eastern Origin in the Kalevala” H. T. Norris (University of London), “Folk Epic in the Wilderness: Arabia and the Nordic World” Isidore Okpewho (University of Ibadan), “Once Upon a Kingdom: Benin in the Heroic Tradition of Subject Peoples” Caoimhin Ó Nualláin (University College Dublin), “The Functioning of Long Formulae in Irish Heroic Folktales” 155 Ahmet Edip Uysal (Middle East Technical University, Ankara), “The Use of the Supernatural in the Turkish Epics of Dede Korkut and Koroghlu” Mortan Nolsøe (Academia Faroensis), “The Heroic Ballad in Faroese Tradition” John Miles Foley (University of Missouri/Columbia), “Formula in Yugoslav and Comparative Folk Epic: Structure and Function” Albert B. Lord (Harvard University), “The Kalevala, South Slavic Epic, and Homer” Stuart Blackburn (Dartmouth College), “A Folk Ramayana in South India: Textual Transmission